Eggcorn Forum

The Gk. prefix amphi- means “on both sides, around”. Ambi, on the other hand, has PIE roots and shows up more or less intact in ProtoGermanic, Sanskrit and Latin and led to the Gk. form. Apparently there was a word in Middle English meaning “around”, and spelled variously as umbe, embe, umb, and um. So substitution of amphi for ambi is not an eggcorn, but it is odd and titillating in a hybrid Saxo-Graeco-Latin way. We might say that there is room for amphivalence on this one. Two first person accounts point to amphibians (ambibians?) for their role in priming amphidextrous.

First person account

Discussion board
Comment: I use both hands and am ambidextrous if I have spelt it right.
Response: ...pssst. amphidextrous
Next response: AMBIDEXTROUS according to my dictionary
First responder: Yes you are right. I didn’t check up a dictionary. but amphidextrous had been used widely colloquially I guess. It derives from amphibians, living in both water & land and hence used in this context-using both hands. I stand corrected Ichy.

Another first person

Book forum
The word amphibian is greek and comprises the proverb “amphi”, which indicates multiplicity in use, character, etc, e.g an amphidextrous person is somebody who can use both hands equally well.

Knife forum
Yes, most handles are amphidextrous, but thats not what I said. What I said was the handles are amphidextrous AND have a comfort molded grip.

The most wonderful of the hits:

Good news for left handers
Infact I am partly amphidextrous partly.

If amphibian can prime amphidextrous, are there any ambiphians out there? Presumably, though that would be indistinguishable from a simple metathesis. Amphibians being a natural kind of biological squash makes the following variant of ambivalent the more piquant.

Political forum
Labour is ambivious to, say, the abolition of the monarchy

Political blog
As ever, Britain’s place in all of this is ambivious